Studies indicate that a significantly elevated risk of miscarriage and birth defects exists for pregnant women using these radiation generating devices for more than twenty hours per week.
The present invention is an improvement in shielded aprons of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,620 (Maine, Dec. 14, 1976) which provides inserts of multiple layers of heavy lead sheeting primarily for X-ray radiation protection. Other similar wearing apparel containing heavy lead as the protection against radiation (primarily X-ray) are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,355 (Maine, Apr. 1, 1980) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,025 (McCoy, Jr., Apr. 3, 1984). Heavy lead, however, provides little or no protection against EMR/RFR/MWR emissions. The present invention protection material is a copper-based coating, very lightweight and flexible and designed specifically for protection against EMR/RFR/MWR emission from electronic equipment.
The present invention which also directed to the application of the copper-based coating to fabric or a fabric insert involves the electroless deposition of conductive metal (copper-based) onto virtually any type of substrate. The deposition process, although different, is similar to those processes disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,904,792 (Gulla et al., Sep. 9, 1975), U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,570 (Giesecke, Feb. 4, 1986), U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,587 (Tsiamis et al., Dec. 3, 1985), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,500 (Dafter, Jr., Jul. 12, 1977), all of which are incorporated herein by reference.